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Sunday, September 11, 2011

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Chocolate cake and I have had a very interesting romance. I started off with quite an intense dislike of chocolate cake. I KNOW. But try not to judge me too harshly, I had many bad experiences with store-bought dry, dense mudcakes covered in grainy baking chocolate icing. So every year when I asked Regex Man what cake he would like for his birthday and every year he replied me with "Chocolate.", it usually filled me with dread. But I took on the challenge and made him a chocolate cake with salted caramel filling and the epic triple-triple chocolate cake covered in macarons. There have been many chocolate cakes since. And somewhere along the way I started to have a grudging respect for chocolate cake, which blossomed into love. Now I can't seem to stop thinking about them, baking them and eating them.

So this year for Regex Man's birthday I offered to do a chocolate cake even though he said it didn't have to be chocolate this year. I had this sudden urge to cover an entire chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip butter icing that looked exactly like the mint chocolate chip ice cream you get from Baskin Robbins. I was also incredibly inspired when I saw this cake idea not too long ago and while I was too lazy to do the chocolate ganache even though it looks awesome, I thought it would be cute to use some of the leftover icing to make 'scoops' with mini ice cream cones.

I used David Lebovitz's devil's food cake recipe again, my new favourite chocolate cake since making it for my raspberry cupcakes when I launched the new site. While making up the cake batter I misread the recipe and managed to add triple the amount of salt than I was meant to but it tasted so good that I just went with it and have included it in the recipe. It's only a small increase but it works well since I'm pairing the cake with quite a sweet icing. I even used a slightly salted butter for the icing to help stop the cake from being sickly sweet. This is seriously one of the easiest and best chocolate cakes I've ever made.

Originally I was going to arrange the scoops of icing around the edge of the cake, but I realised I didn't have quite enough icing to do that so I ended up just doing a few of them in the middle. I can't quite figure out if it looks a bit awkward but I'm happy with the way the icing itself looks. It really reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream, one of my favourite flavours. This cake is great for anyone who loves mint and chocolate together, and is easy to whip up and impress your friends with.

Butter and line the base of a two 9-inch cake tins (I only had a 22cm springform tin which I used for both cakes) and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Using an electric mixer with a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated.

Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients until smooth. Split batter mixture between the two prepared tins (or in my case, I used half for the first cake, baked it and then reused the tin for the other half of the batter). Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in tin about 5 mins, then place on a wire rack and cool completely before icing.

Prepare the mint icing; remove butter from fridge about half an hour before starting. Cut up butter into smaller pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on high until fluffy and smooth. Add sifted icing sugar one cup at a time, beating until combined. Add peppermint essence to taste and green food colouring. Gradually add chocolate chip pieces until you have a good distribution of chocolate bits.

Use about 1/4 of the icing on top of one of the cakes and smooth over with a spatula. Place second cake top side down on top of the iced cake. Cover entire cake with more icing, smoothing with a spatula. I used an offset spatula, running it under hot water every now and then to help keep the surface smoother. Use the leftover icing to form scoops of icing to place on top of the cake, arranged however you like. Use mini ice cream cones or chop the ends of normal-sized cones and place on top of icing scoops. Alternatively you could cover the top with extra dark chocolate chips. Can be served immediately or stored in an airtight container overnight. Serve at room temperature.

this looks so damn amazing - I swear it's the exact shade of mint ice cream that I love - i.e., the one from Baskin Robbins! In fact for a moment, I thought the photo was of an ice cream cake. I'm gonna take you for your word and buy myself some peppermint essence to try out this cake :D

I adore your blog and basically every single one of your bakes, but this is by far my favourite to date! It sounds and looks utterly gorgeous!! I really thought those 3 scoops on top were ice cream, you did an awesome job. Really wanting to give this lovely a go and just plunge my face straight into its scrumminess :)

For years when I was a kid, mint choc chip was the only flavour I'd ask for when we were out and Mum offered to buy me an ice-cream. I haven't had it for years now but obviously it's a flavour which is close to my heart and always brings back a moment of childhood when I have it. Love the mini cones on top of this cake, but how dark and chocolately is that cake!

ddhsfu today's actually my birthday and now i'm the saddest panda ever that i'm making caramel brownies when this was apparently an option. saving this recipe for the next time i have an excuse to bake a cake.

Just finished reading your gorgeous post over at Poires au Chocolat and thought I'd come have a browse round your site as haven't visited for a while. This post is AWESOME. Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my absolute childhood favourite, so to combine it with cake...epic! I love what you've done with the little ice cream cones on top - ridiculously cute. Am definitely bookmarking this to make as soon as I have a birthday or party as an excuse!

Just want to enquire if Its ok to let the batter keep sitting while I am baking the first layer of cake or did you do make the batter twice for the 2 layers as my oven will not accommodate 2 9-inch cake tins

I made this delicious cake for my boyfriend's birthday. He is the ultimate mint chocolate chip fanatic! I ended up using mint extract instead of peppermint because of what was available at our store, worked out fine. Thank you very much for this wonderful recipe, he couldn't have been happier!

I made this on Saturday and it was great. I used the quantities given for 1 X 2 layer 16cm cake and 1 X 2 layer 10cm cake and it worked well. I didn't add the ice cream cone decoration, but it was beautiful and delicious all the same. Thank you for the great recipe.

Wow I made this for a work event with a milk chocolate and dark chocolate layer and a small sample for my friend and I to try and we almost ate the whole cake in one go! This was so delicious, but even better it was so simple to make! Keep the yummy cakes coming please!

Cupcake and talk - It definitely should work great as cupcakes! I've used the cake recipe before in cupcakes, just take care not to overfill the papers and bake it for long enough - the cake rises quite a lot and can overflow

Just tried the icing recipe!! Pure genius!! I used the Hershey's cake recipe along with this icing. I made it for my mom's birthday because she loves mint with chocolate, especially the mint/chip ice cream. And she loved the cake!! Success!!

Oh wow! I feel exactly the same about chocolate cakes. My family similarly ask for them all the time and I shy away from making them because they are dry in texture or don't really taste like chocolate to me at all. Can't wait to try out your recipe. Love the extra touch of more salt - my best ideas come from my mistakes (hee hee).

This blog makes me drool! I have been reading solidly for 2 days and so inspired by this cake I have it baked and waiting to decorate for my friends birthday! Can you please tell me what brand of peppermint essence you use? I have used the queens brand in the past but I would prefer to use one that had a more natural mint flavour, so it really has that delicious minty choc chip flavour that you would get from a mint/choc chip ice cream! Thank you for an amazing blog!

Have your cake! - Yay! I love when people can't resist whipping up a cake after reading my blog :D I use queens brand too, it tasted just like mint choc chip ice cream to me! But if you want something more natural, maybe try blending up some fresh mint leaves with a tiny bit of water and using that instead, but it will be a lot more mild.

It was AMAZING! I ended up crushing up some pepperming crisp bars that I had in my cupboard because when I went to get out the queens brand that I thought I had, there is none left! It was so good, I could have eaten the whole bowl of icing!! I only ate the cut off bits of cake smothered in left over icing but I am suprising my friend with the cake tonight so I can't wait to see her face when she see's it! You have me inspired so much now, I want to try to make a 'crunchie' cake, honeycomb flavoured! I've done a cherry ripe before, but it wasn't cherry-y enough so I have to rethink my recipe! I see you use the exclusively foods white choc mud cake recipe, I can always rely on those girls for a great recipe that works and tastes amazing! You should taste their chicken casserole!! This weekend I will be trying some of your macaroon receipes, I'm thinking lemon lime & bitters, or the strawberry nesquik ones, heart shaped of course for my sweetheart! Thanks again, and also for replying :)

Dear Stephcookie,I am a Bulgarian fan of your blog and read careful every article you've posted!! And since so far I've been only reading, decided to try this cake.. BUT.. I am in Bulgaria we here measure in grams - you will say it's easy to convert cups into grams, but I made a Google search, and believe me I found different measures for it!! Different even in a different country! Even so I tried to make the cake, and I baked the bases, but the taste was a bit bitter, maybe it's from the coffee or cocoa, I don't know, but I didn't like it.. it wasn't chocolate at all.. I don't know what I did wrong.. at the other hand the icing got too dark because of these 150 gr chocolate.. I've should put less.. anyway my request is can you tell me how many grams are your measures. I know you are posting for the most of the products grams too, WHICH I APPRECIATE MUCH!! But gues tbsp, teasp and cups are different..

Soul Shaker - I'm sorry you had issues with the cake. We measure in grams here as well, but the cake recipe which I used is from a site that doesn't use all gram measurements. If you found the cake too bitter then it was probably the coffee, just replace it with water. If the icing got too dark then you should gradually add the chocolate pieces until you are happy with it, don't be afraid to adapt! I don't know how much more information I can give you, I use a 250ml volume cup, a 20ml tbsp and 5 ml tsp. I can't give you the exactly gram measurements for this particular recipe because I did not measure everything in grams in this case.

THANK YOU for the quick reply Stephcookie!! Probably it was the coffee, and since 1 1/2 cup sugar I transferred as 300 gr decided to put only 300, maybe that was mistake too.. but since I am newbie still trying to experiment with things and to discover how different components react to each other. But def will try this cake again!!! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!! I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!!! (no matter that it reflects on my body weight even when I only watch :-)

Okay, I've been trying out making cakes from scratch this week and everything I've tried has always used milk, that's why I was confused. My Mint Chocolate Chip Cake turned out great though. Thanks for the recipe!

Instead of making it mint choc chip, could you replace the chocolate and mint in the icing for chopped oreos? Or would the icing be all out of whack?-I've just been reading your blog for a few weeks and love it, and tell everyone I know about it :)and I'm always in the mood for baking!

Aww thanks! You could definitely replace it with oreos! Though you might want to try using crushed oreos rather than just chopped ones, chopped might be too chunky and be difficult to smooth? Mmm I love cookies and cream flavoured stuff...

Hi I'm just in the process of making this and as I added the processed chocolate to my icing it turned it an unpleasant brownish colour :( I wondered if this happened to anyone and if there were any solutions?

It sounds like you processed the chocolate too much. You want it to be small chucks but not a fine powder. It's best to sift out the finer powder before you add it to the icing, and only gradually add the chocolate until you're happy with how it looks. Also it's better to chill the chocolate before you process it to stop it from melting.

This is amazing and I can't wait to make it for my husband, who is a mint chocolate fanatic. I have a technique question for you - how do you get the cake so perfectly level? I made a strawberry lemon cake this weekend and even though I trimmed the cake, it ended up a little lopsided (maybe the icing was too soft?). Thanks so much - I just found your blog and I love it!

Made these as cupcakes for my hubby's bday, delicious! I couldn't get my frosting green enough, I think I chopped the chocolate a little too fine and may have added too much. Didn't hurt the flavor though. THanks for a great recipe :)

Hi! I made this cake for my birthday last week because it looked so beautiful. My mum and I both agreed that the recipe was flawless - not too complicated, and very easy to understand. We were both really impressed by how much our cake actually looked like the photos above - it was almost identical! Truly a fantastic recipe. You should publish a cook book :) Best wishes and many thanks. xo

I made this cake for my friend's surprise birthday party, and everyone really liked it. I was especially pleased with the frosting. I loved this cake, even though it was a mother to frost. Thanks for posting the recipe

thank you so much for posting this recipe. i made a different version of it. I made a butter milk chocolate cake and the covered it with swiss meringe butter cream . it made the cake lighter and the kids said it tasted exactly like the ice cream. once again thank you so much for the recipe it was a total hit.

I was so excited to make this cake so yesterday i bought all the ingredients and got to work. The first set of cakes stuck to the pan despite them being greased and when i finally got them out they crumbled into hundreds of little cake pieces. I did some googling to see if the internet had any answers to as why this happened and the general consensus was that i didn't let them cool enough. So i dusted myself and started again, following the recipe to a tee. I made sure the pans were properly greased and lightly coated them with cocoa powder then left the cakes to cool for 2 hours before trying to remove them from the pan. They stuck and fell apart again! Any idea where I went wrong?? I was so disappointed. Wanted to make it to take to work for my birthday today but alas, i had to come in empty handed :(

As mentioned in the recipe, I always line the base of my cake tin with good quality baking paper as well as greasing it very well. If you still have trouble with sticking run a thin bladed knife around the edge of the tin before turning it out.

Thanks for getting back to me :) I must've missed the part about the baking paper *doh!* I did try the knife trick but unfortunately the cakes stuck to the bottom, not the sides, so it didn't help. I'll definitely try the paper next time though. I refuse to be beaten by a cake! :)

It was my first time making a cake with icing... as someone who doesn't like mint or buttercream, I was completely surprised by how wonderful the cake tastes! It was meant as a birthday cake for a friend and many commented on how soft the cake is. As I don't like my cream too sweet, I reduced the sugar in the icing by about half and added a pinch of salt, with two teaspoons of peppermint extract. I sprinkled some of the chocolate chips on top. Thank u so much for sharing the recipe:)

I guess try turning your oven temp up 5-10 degrees? Otherwise if your cakes turned out nice after an hour then it depends on if you're patient enough to wait the extra time! I followed David's original recipe and I think it may have taken slightly longer in my oven because it tends to run cooler.

Made it yesterday. Turned out amazing. The only flaw was that....I spent hours perfecting the mint color of the icing, and when i deemed it to be perfect and added in the chocolate, the whole frosting turned brown! I think i might have crushed the chocolate a bit too finely :( I wanted the mint color.

Also, you haven't mentioned in the recipe whether the coffee needs to be at room temperature or boiling. I used, not boiling, but hot coffee, and the as soon as i added it to the mix, loads and loads of lumps formed.

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